<P><B>Um
<P>By Your Quixotic Juliette
<P>
<P>You know it really hurt at first...
<P>But I got to the point where pleasure and pain became one.
<P>At first I wouldn't slice the flesh.
<P>I would press the blade until it was angry and red.
<P>
<P>You know it really hurt at first...
<P>But the impulses for pleasure and pain are almost the same.
<P>You know what I've told you is true.
<P>You know I could never do this to myself.
<P>
<P>My arms heal every night.
<P>My arms, they are sacred.
<P>That's all they ever wanted.
<P>If I wasn't such a coward,
<P>I'd've cut them off.
<P>Fortunately They sing a song of pure reason.
<P>
<P>You know it doesn't hurt when my flesh is cut to the bone...
<P>I've started to like this feeling.
<P>
<P>I don't know how it all started.
<P>I don't know when it will end.
<P>I know what the dusties have told me.
<P>I know that much is true.
<P>
<P>It speaks,
<P>Deep under the groundless bottle.
<P>It bleeds,
<P>Bleeds me out and makes me whole again.
<P>
<P>They are whole.
<P>They are what it means to be holy.
<P>
<P>Black children of a mass of flesh and blood.
<P>Terrible long fingers.
<P>Killing me as quick as any poison.